1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a functional unit for temporarily distributing fluids, that is to say gas and vacuum and auxiliary services in a hospital environment. In particular, the present invention relates to a backup or emergency functional unit intended temporarily to re-establish the function of distribution of gas or vacuum and auxiliary services if the systems within a hospital building or the like should fail in an unforeseen or unwanted manner.
2. Related Art
In a hospital environment, for example in operating theatres, emergency rooms, resuscitation rooms or on the wards, the importance of the availability of medical fluids (oxygen, air, vacuum, etc.) for medium-term and long-term programmed use and for emergency interventions is well known.
It is also known that, for this very reason, appropriate distribution installations are provided, these being structured and equipped in such a way as to make these medical fluids available at several respective “wall outlets” or end-use units installed in a rational manner at locations where they are to be used, for example, in treatment rooms or wards.
These outlets or end-use units arranged on the walls or on fixed or mobile hangers are usually in the form of “nozzles” or connection outlets that can be connected using special connectors and flexible pipes to the medical equipment that uses the medical fluids, for example oxygen masks, devices assisting with breathing or ventilation, devices for aspirating bodily fluids and similar equipment.
It is further known that the regular distribution of medical fluids may suffer from accidental and unforeseeable interruptions, for example caused by damage to the fluid supply pipes, to the components that control, regulate, and interrupt the flow of the various gases involved.
In an attempt to confront these emergency situations, in addition to adopting “backed-up” distribution systems as stipulated in the relevant standards, it is common practice to build up reserves of medical gas which are structurally and functionally independent of the distribution installations, generally loading them into gas cylinders fitted with appropriate components for distributing and controlling the gas.
However, the use of gas cylinders or carboys has numerous disadvantages associated above all with handling them and with the possibility that they may be subjected to accidental impacts, such as droppage, with the risk that the distribution and control components with which they are fitted may become broken or deformed and hence reduce their functionality to a greater or lesser extent.
Furthermore, the vast majority of the gas cylinders kept on standby have the shortcoming of being relatively heavy and large in size, making them somewhat inconvenient, even for specialist personnel, to use in an emergency. Indeed it is known that supply failure situations may create panic and cause even the most experienced of operators to work under conditions of stress that may lead to error or injury with the current equipment available.
Furthermore, when the supply of all medical gases is suddenly interrupted, it is necessary to re-establish all the supplies which is a substantial undertaking with a high probability of errors being introduced owing to the fact that each cylinder contains a different gas.
It should also be emphasized that when use is made of standby gas cylinders kept only for occasional use, there is a potential risk that these cylinders will discharge over time and/or that they will not contain enough gas at the very time that they need to be used.
In addition, there is currently no entirely satisfactory solution for overcoming an unwanted interruption in the centralized distribution of vacuum, that is to say for when the vacuum network used to aspirate the internal cavities of patients becomes unserviceable, for example during a surgical operation, with the exception of certain electrical systems which are, however, of limited capability, such as individual electric aspirators.
In light of that, one problem that needs to be solved is therefore that of being able completely, or at least partially, to overcome the aforesaid disadvantages of the prior art by making it possible in a hospital environment to form a substantial reserve of medical gases and auxiliary services that is completely independent of any conventional distribution installation that might be present such that it can be made available quickly at any point in the hospital environment.
Another object of the invention is to propose a particularly reliable solution that can be deployed effectively in emergency situations while avoiding the potential difficulties associated with the sporadic nature of its use.
In addition, another object of the invention is to prevent the medical and/or paramedical staff from having to perform relatively dangerous manual operations on cylinders for which their normal day to day functions do not suitably prepare them.
Furthermore, the solution of the invention needs to be able to immediately inform the operators as to the actual availability of the product, as to the actual pressure level in the standby gas cylinders and in the secondary distribution network.